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Mother of the Octuplets Goes Home to Recover

The 27-year-old woman who gave birth to octuplets this month said today as she was about to be released from the hospital that she was not the least bit upset when doctors told her she was to have so many, many babies. Quite the contrary.

''I was so thankful to God because it is what I had prayed for,'' the woman, Nkem Chukwu, said at St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital. ''I was so excited. I wanted to have as many babies as God would give me.''

The giving began on Dec. 8, when Ms. Chukwu, a Nigerian-born American citizen, gave birth to her first daughter, Ebuku, and continued on Dec. 20 with the births of two sons and five more daughters. The smallest of the babies, Odera, just 10.3 ounces at birth, died of heart and lung failure on Sunday.

Shortly before she returned to her home in Houston for further recuperation, Ms. Chukwu had her first public appearance at the adjacent Texas Children's Hospital, where the surviving seven babies remain listed in critical, but stable, condition.

At the same news conference, doctors said the babies continued to do well and were now expected not only to survive but also to be at home with their parents within three months, around the time of Ms. Chukwu's original due date. There were still dangers, the doctors warned, and reverses were possible.

Three of the infants, Ebuku, Gorom and Ikem, remain on a ventilator, doctors said, but the four others, Echerem, Chidi, Chima and Jioke, are breathing on their own and two took their first feedings of their mother's breast milk this morning.

The most important issue over the coming weeks and months will be getting all the babies off the ventilator and taking their mother's milk, probably with the help of a breast pump, said Dr. Patti Savrick, the babies' chief pediatrician. An important milestone was reached on Tuesday, when pediatricians examined all seven infants and found that none were suffering from cranial bleeding, a common condition among premature infants.

Seated in a wheelchair between her husband, Iyke Louis Udobi, a respiratory therapist, and her mother, Janet Chukwu, a weary Ms. Chukwu insisted that everyone in the room stand for a prayer before the news conference could begin and repeatedly said it was her faith in the Bible and her trust in God that brought her through the long, difficult pregnancy. ''It wasn't easy,'' she said.

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The birth of the Chukwu octuplets, as well as other recent multiple births, has revived ethical concerns among many doctors over the proper use of the advanced fertility drugs used by Ms. Chukwu and others, especially since so many of the babies in multiple births do not survive or suffer lifelong health problems.

A technique promoted by many doctors involves injecting some of the embryos in the womb with a drug to stop them from growing, allowing the remaining embryos a better chance of survival and good health.

This selective reduction option was offered to Ms. Chukwu, when doctors first thought she was carrying six or perhaps seven embryos, but she rejected it and insisted on carrying all of her babies as long as she could. Today, she said she did not regret that decision.

''I could not find such words in my Bible, so I rejected it,'' she said. ''I told them I wasn't going to do it. I wasn't even going to give it a thought, not a second thought.''

Dr. Brian Kirshon, her doctor, said he had advised Ms. Chukwu to take it easy when she returned home.

''I have advised slow integration back into normal life,'' Dr. Kirshon said. ''She's going to have to slowly walk greater distances, obviously no heavy lifting, limited activity. Each day she will be able to do a little more.''

Mr. Louis said the family had been talking to several prospective agents since the births, but had not yet decided which to hire. Only then, though, will the family decide on whether the babies will take part in television programs or commercial ventures, he said. No photographs or videotapes of them have been released by the family.